Chiff and Fipple Forums

Anyone ever have this happen to them? This was my all time favourite whistle, built for me by Jerry Freeman. I played this whistle more than any others and really loved the sound. I was taking it apart for some regular, scheduled cleaning and the mouth piece just sheered clean off. It wasn't really stuck at all. Wondering if there was a flaw in the plastic that gave it a weak point.

IMG_9603 by Pat McInnis, on Flickr

Should be fixable.

RoberTunes wrote:Should be fixable.

I did a passable repair but don't feel like it should have broken so easily in the first place. Looks like a franken-whistle now. Haha

Pat, the band on the bottom of the mouthpiece is the culprit: A nice idea in an effort to secure the head but..... well, you see. Basically, without the band, any force you apply to remove the head is distributed far more evenly along the length of that plastic sleeve that covers the tube. The application of the band makes that immediate area tighter and focuses and twisting/pulling forces (looks like you were doing both by the breakaway pattern), to the area just above the band.

Also, maybe “routine maintenance” that requires disassembly isn’t really necessary on cheap whistles? A swab of the bore, and regular rinsing of the windway should suffice.

Jerry puts the band on to prevent the cracking on the head along the axis of the tube. So you gain something and lose something. I've used this as a rationale for my sloth in cleaning whistles. Just dip them in gin periodically to kill any germs and enhance the flavor...

Best wishes.

Steve

Steve Bliven wrote:Just dip them in gin periodically to kill any germs and enhance the flavor...

Best wishes.

Steve

Loren wrote:Pat, the band on the bottom of the mouthpiece is the culprit: A nice idea in an effort to secure the head but..... well, you see. Basically, without the band, any force you apply to remove the head is distributed far more evenly along the length of that plastic sleeve that covers the tube. The application of the band makes that immediate area tighter and focuses and twisting/pulling forces (looks like you were doing both by the breakaway pattern), to the area just above the band.

Also, maybe “routine maintenance” that requires disassembly isn’t really necessary on cheap whistles? A swab of the bore, and regular rinsing of the windway should suffice.

Best advice yet except I'm more of a whiskey man. Haha

To strengthen the socket/tenon I wrap heavy carpet thread around it, then soak the thread in super glue.

This creates an extremely strong rock-hard sock that will never split nor shear off like that one did.

Here, on the Bb and C.

The A whistle on the far left has the elegant red thread wrapping that Jerry used to do, before he started doing the brass rings.

Polara Pat wrote: . . . .Looks like a franken-whistle now. . .

Any chance for a photo ?

pancelticpiper wrote:To strengthen the socket/tenon I wrap heavy carpet thread around it, then soak the thread in super glue.

This creates an extremely strong rock-hard sock that will never split nor shear off like that one did.

Here, on the Bb and C.

The A whistle on the far left has the elegant red thread wrapping that Jerry used to do, before he started doing the brass rings.

Interesting technique. Does this mean that this has happened to you before?

I confess that I tried twice to contact Jerry, not to lay blame in any way but rather to let him know that something he made broke and to request another mouth piece or two that I would purchase. Unfortunately he didn't respond.

Photo to follow

IMG_9647 by Pat McInnis, on Flickr